Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) is a situation where an Infant receives only breast milk for the first six months of life. It has the single largest potential impact on child mortality of any preventive intervention. It is part of optimal breastfeeding practices including initiation within one hour of life and continued breastfeeding for up to two years of age or beyond.
On the other hand, Breast Milk Substitutes (BMS) include all forms of artificial milk or infant formula used in feeding babies. This BMS is responsible for the low rates of exclusive breast feeding as most mothers see it as handy and convenient since it makes it possible for anybody to feed the baby outside the mother. BMS manufacturers have cashed in on this to use various advertising and promotion techniques to target new mothers.
In commemorating this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, stakeholders have blamed low rates of Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF) on the activities of BMS industries.
According to the Professor of Pediatric and Child Health, Alice Romoke-Nte, the aggressive marketing of BMS by manufacturers is responsible for the gap in breastfeeding of babies by Nigerian mothers. The coordinator of Baby Friendly Initiative at the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital said the advertising of these artificial baby foods weakens the confidence of mothers making them think these Breast Milk Substitutes are better of.
Prof. Nte disclosed that this market is why only 29% Nigerian babies are breastfed and called for aggressive campaign on the need for exclusive breastfeeding
She also stressed the need to enforce the international code for marketing of breast milk substitute as way of promoting exclusive breastfeeding.
The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUN) in a one week programme to celebrate this year’s WBW 2021 while affirming the activities of BMS manufacturers in contributing to the dwindling population of exclusively breast fed babies stressed the need for policies that promote, protect and support optimal breastfeeding.
CS-SUN noted that the role of women in promoting the practice of EBF is indispensable adding that aggressive campaigns are needed to educate new mothers on the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding on the health their babies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommend that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life and continue for up to two years of age or beyond.
To enable mothers establish and sustain exclusive breastfeeding for six months, WHO and UNICEF recommend immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact and initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of life as well as counselling mothers on the risks and use of supplementary feeding, bottles, teats or pacifiers.
This means no other food or drinks, even water. Exclusive breastfeeding provides all the nutrients and water a baby needs in the first six months of life. After which all babies need complementary foods, in addition to breast milk. However, breast milk continues to be an important source of energy and high-quality nutrients beyond six months of age.
Benefits of a baby having breast milk are enormous. Breast milk contains the complete nutrients a baby needs, it is easily digested and efficiently used by the baby’s body, protects a baby against infections, i provides long-term protection against chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Other benefits of breastfeeding include being less expensive than artificial feeding, helps a mother and baby to bond, helps the baby’s development, protects the mother’s health, helps the uterus to return to its previous size which reduces bleeding and prevents anaemia, reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer in the mother, and delays a new pregnancy.
Majority of women are choosing to breastfeed their newborns, but unfortunately, many cannot breastfeed for as long as they want they rather see BMS as very convenient and the same as breast milk. This is largely due to lack of effective monitoring of BMS marketing as BMS companies use skillful techniques and adverts to get new mothers attention. ABA WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2021.
Ending inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children includes a recommendation that BMS manufacturers should stop the sponsorship of national and regional professional paediatrics associations, or any form of sponsorship among health system personnel. Establishment of legal measures and overall prohibition on the use of health facilities for promotion of BMS and measures that call for a full prohibition of all gifts or incentives for health workers from them.
More so, governments health systems have a responsibility to ensure that both the public and private health care sectors are protected from BMS industry influence. WABA WORLD BREASTFEEDING Workers
Another way is to promulgate policies that will provide employed women and parents with adequate maternity and parental protection to enable them achieve their breastfeeding goals. The lack of support for breastfeeding at the workplace opens the door for targeted marketing by the BMS industry which also adds to the household’s economic burden. Most employers lack the understanding about how supporting breastfeeding can be beneficial for businesses, as well as for workers and their families. In most cases workers in the informal economy are usually not represented by a formal union so they face many barriers to breastfeeding.
The COVID‐19pandemic did not help matters, it affected women’s breastfeeding experiences at work in diverse ways, worsening the situation for workers who are nursing mothers thereby making them more vulnerable to general promotion and donations by the BMS industry in times of emergencies and disasters. BMS companies profit off the confusion and fears surrounding breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic, actively promoting their products as “safer alternatives”. BA WORLD BREASTFEEDING A WORLD BREAST
Legislations must be enacted and upheld to protect mothers and other parents and their rights to enhanced maternity and parental leave Another requirement is the full implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions (the Code). Evidence shows that a multi-sectoral public health strategy improves breastfeeding practices. These strategies must be adopted more widely and equitably. A particularly serious challenge to breastfeeding is exploitation by the breastmilk substitutes (BMS) industry through widespread promotion and unethical marketing. These practices are covered by the Code and should be regulated by national legislation. This year is the 40th anniversary of the Code. Although there has been encouraging progress in a number of countries, in Nigeria the Code is poorly monitored and enforced.
Improved Exclusive Breast Feeding rates is a public health issue, requiring effort and investment at levels. During this year’s commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week, which has “protecting breastfeeding is a shared responsibility” as its theme, stakeholders maintained that it is time for everybody to inform, anchor, engage and galvanise action to protect and support breastfeeding. This will help ensure survival, health and wellbeing for children and their families, while remaining the key to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, leaving no one behind. The 2021 action folder examines challenges to breastfeeding protection and support at all levels.
World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated every 1-7 August in commemoration of the 1990 Innocenti Declaration. It started in 1992, with annual themes including healthcare systems, women and work, the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes, community support, ecology, economy, science, education and human rights. It was endorsed in 2018 by a World Health Assembly resolution as an important breastfeeding promotion strategy.
